Shireoaks recycling plant: District Council to raise objection on plans for controversial plastic recycling centre
Plans for the Shireoaks Plastic Recycling Centre & Energy Recovery Facility were first raised to local residents at the end of 2023, before a planning application was finally submitted in May of this year.
The plans have proved controversial due to the intended use of a technology known as pyrolysis, which involves heating waste plastic to high temperatures to form materials used to produce new plastics.
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Hide AdGroups including Zero Waste Europe deny that pyrolysis should be classified as a recycling technique, and claim that it can cause emissions which are harmful to the environment and human health.


Refiniti and Envale, the groups behind the proposal, previously said that the site would utilise an “innovative” process which offers the solution to many issues raised by groups such as Zero Waste Europe, and that emissions would be “strenuously monitored” at the site.The firms also state that the energy recovery facility at the site would prevent to 24,369 tonnes per annum of non-recyclable, residual waste from going to landfill and generate up to 2.5 Megawatts of electricity - enough to power over 650 homes every year.
In a Planning Committee meeting held on Wednesday, Bassetlaw District Council resolved to raise an objection to the planning application for the facility. The application will be determined by Nottinghamshire County Council in the coming months.
A Nottinghamshire County Council spokesperson said: "All comments and responses received by Nottinghamshire County Council, as the waste planning authority, will be taken into account as part of the decision-making process.”
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Hide AdShireoaks and Rhodesia Against Plastic Pyrolysis, a group formed to oppose the recycling plant, said it had gathered just under 800 objection letters and received around 300 petition signatures in a bid to block the site.
Lesley Rowlands, a founding member of the group, said: “We are overwhelmingly pleased with the overall positive outcome arrived at by Bassetlaw District Council to provide an objection to the application and to make this stance clear to Nottingham County Council.”
The proposed site for the facility was previously used for waste management until 2014. Objectors claim, however, that changes in land use around the site now mean that it is no longer suitable for this type of development.
Ward Councillor David Pressley (Lab), said he was “glad” that the Planning Committee had raised an objection, adding: “My view is that the site is no longer appropriate for this type of development as there has been lots of New Housing Leisure and Business users in the Area since the previous Planning Permission was granted back in 2006.”
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Hide AdA member of the Shireoaks Plastic Recycling Centre & Energy Recovery Facility project team added: “The Shireoaks Plastics Recycling Centre is a carefully considered proposal, supported by robust environmental technical assessments which have been scoped following pre-application discussions with Nottinghamshire County Council and the local community.
“The facilities are an answer to Nottinghamshire’s plastic and residual waste problem, and we look forward to the consideration of our proposals by independent experts at Nottinghamshire County Council”
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